That's What Remy Said
by ElvenMuggle
Summary: Tired of Remy and Rogue keeping their feelings from each other, Kitty decides to do the SMART thing and trap them in a car together in the middle of a snow storm.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men**

…

Date: December 22

Time: 7:42 pm

Location: At a random pizza place in Bayville

The night was dark, cold, and wet. Dark because the sun had gone down two hours before as was normal in winter, and cold and wet because of the thick falling snow from the rapidly worsening blizzard.

Rogue had not wanted to go out in the first place. Really, neither had Remy. But it was, after all, as Kitty had put it before she had rudely shoved them out the front door, Rogue's turn to pick up dinner. And it wasn't that Remy wasn't pleased or eager to be able to spend some extra time with Rogue, but he had been confused when Kitty had insisted that he come along with her to pick up everyone's dinner.

Rogue had been annoyed at this insistence. For one, she was perfectly capable of picking up pizza for the group by herself, despite the falling snow outside. For two, she had been working hard at avoiding Remy all week and throwing them in a car together certainly wasn't helping the avoiding him plan.

And why was Rogue trying to avoid Remy you ask?

The answer was simple. Rogue had been working with Professor X the past few weeks on gaining control of her powers. It was not an easy, or a fun task, and she was having a lot of difficulty in mastering it. And what did not make this task any easier was Remy's constant unabated flirting.

He seemed more excited by the possibility of Rogue's powers being controlled than Rogue herself. Everyday he would come and ask her how it was going, ask her if she could touch yet, and then proceed to 'test the waters' as he put it before trying to kiss her.

Usually this would end up with Remy getting a slap to the face, or a kick to the shins. The last time he had tried it he had gotten the bad—albeit nice since he did get to kiss her—shock of touching the skin of her lips and passing out for hours afterward.

And since _that_ ludicrous event happened, Rogue sought to avoid Remy at all costs.

It had actually worked too. Why, just two mornings ago he had had enough of her avoiding him and attempted to jump into her car as she was pulling out of the garage to head to work. But his plan backfired when he found the door locked and Rogue inside behind the wheel glaring at him. And when she wouldn't unlock it he had jumped onto the hood and refused to get down until she did so.

Of course she had denied his request and screamed at him. Still he didn't budge so she did the only thing she knew to do and started driving down the driveway, swerving left and right to try and throw him off while they screamed at each other. Eventually he had rolled off and landed neatly on his feet and she sped on out of the gates.

Something that neither one of them noticed was Charles Xavier and Hank McCoy, sipping their morning coffee together and watching this all out of the second story window with interest.

So when Rogue's teammates had told her it was her turn to take care of dinner, she didn't think anything of it. That was the normal routine; they fairly shared the responsibility of getting food for everyone. But when Kitty had insisted that Remy go along too, Rogue knew that something was off. But she wasn't exactly sure _what_ and she wouldn't for some time.

She and Remy climbed into the car amid Rogue's warnings to be quiet or face the consequences and went to go get the food. The pizza place was fifteen minutes down the road and they had called in, so the food was already made and waiting for them. In no time at all, they were back in the car and driving back to the mansion.

Rogue turned on her bright lights and squinted to see through the snow. Was it just her, or had it started coming down a LOT harder than it had been before they had left home?

It was so thick and heavy that she drove only ten miles an hour and worried that maybe she should pull over and wait for it to clear up some. But no, they were ten minutes from home, surely they would make it.

They didn't come across another soul out on the road. No doubt everyone else in Bayville had more sense than they had to go out when the weather was so dangerous. Just when the snow had gotten so bad that Rogue had no idea what was in front of her, something under the hood of the car shuddered and everything cut off.

"NO!" She moaned in horror and tried desperately to start the engine again, to no avail. This could not happen. This was horrible. Of all the nights for the car to break down, it had to happen on the one night the weather was out of control? And also the one night that she was stuck in the car with none other than Remy?

Hm…That sounded a little off to her.

Rogue glanced over at Remy. "What's wrong with it?" She asked, motioning towards the dashboard.

He simply shrugged in reply. He hadn't said anything since Rogue had warned him not to. But now he was staring at her with his arms crossed and giving her the look a five year old would give his mother when she told him no.

"You have no idea?" She tried again. He was a guy; surely he knew _something_ about cars. She hoped so; she knew nothing.

"How would Remy know?" He spoke finally, "he's not looking under the hood."

"Well stop referring to yourself in the third person and get out there!" She reached across him and opened his door. But instead of getting out, her grabbed hold of her elbow that she had stretched over him and pulled her closer.

"What do I get if I do?" He purred into her ear.

Her heartbeat now pounding in her ears, Rogue swallowed a big lump of nervousness and jerked away quickly. "I'll come with you," she said before opening the door and stepping out.

"That's what she said." Remy told her as he got out also and walked around to the front of the car.

Rogue was glad for the darkness punctuated only by the dim streetlight overhead—otherwise he would have seen her flushed face. She reached under the hood of the car and started pulling and—nothing happened. What the hell? She had seen people do this all the time and the hood had always come open so easily for them.

She pulled again, harder this time, with still no luck. "What is wrong with this _thing_?" She asked in frustration.

Remy reached down lazily and pushed the button under the hood.

"Oh." Rogue blushed again, embarrassed.

After that, Remy had opened the hood and disappeared under it. Rogue waited, a little impatiently, shivering and wrapping her coat around her more securely. She glanced around to see where they had stopped. Of course there were no businesses or homes around here. For SOME REASON she had decided to take the back roads. All that was nearby was trees, trees, and then some more trees. And a few street lights.

Every now and then she would hear a 'hm' or a 'uhuh' come from Remy as he messed around with whatever he was messing around with.

Finally, he stood up straight and closed the hood.

"I have found the problem." He announced.

Relief flooded Rogue as she sighed. "Oh, good. What is it?"

"The problem is—I know nothing about cars and have no idea what the problem with the car is." Remy smirked at her incredulous look.

"Are you _kidding_ me?" She shrieked, distraught at having freedom dangled so close before being ripped away again by Remy. "Why did you say _that_? Oh never mind," she added when he opened his mouth to respond.

Rogue stalked back around the car and got back into the drivers seat. Remy copied her movements as she reached for the phone.

…

Kitty Pryde was proud of herself. Very proud of herself indeed. Her diabolical plan was working out so well, she couldn't believe her good fortune.

Not only had Rogue agreed to go get dinner when it wasn't even her turn to do so, and Remy had gone with her with no question, but everyone else was on board with her scheming. And we're talking everyone. Even Charles, Hank, Ororo, and strangest of all, Logan were all in on it.

Half of them were tired of Rogue not admitting to herself that she liked Remy, when clear as day, she did very much. The other half just wanted some entertainment. It had been a very long time since they had been on a mission and the TV could hold their attention for only so long.

Now, it wasn't as if Kitty was always prying into Rogue's business, but something she saw a week ago had set this whole thing into motion.

She had been observing as of late the way Remy talked to her, the way he would try to hold her gloved hand, and also the way that sometimes Rogue would allow Remy to hold said hand. Remy was unabashedly infatuated with her, and Kitty was sure that Rogue felt the same way, but kept her emotions bottled up.

And now out of the blue Rogue wanted to gain control of her powers? Yeah _right_! Kitty would bet her whole wardrobe that a certain Cajun had a very big part in Rogue's sudden decision.

And then to top everything off, Kitty had seen Remy kiss Rogue—before he passed out and turned white as sheet that is—and the look on Rogue's face said it all. She didn't try to fight it; no, in Kitty's opinion, she seemed to welcome the kiss and was overly concerned about Remy when he had passed out.

So Kitty had come to the decision that it was her responsibility to get Remy and Rogue together. And how best to do this? Obviously they needed to spend a long, uninterrupted time together, trapped in a broken car on the side of the road while the snow flew romantically down around them.

Yes, Kitty was sure of it, this was the perfect plan.

At first she had planned on doing it all herself. But she ran into several problems along the way. She didn't know anything about cars, and if she was going to sabotage it to make it break down while Rogue was driving it, then she needed someone who did. So she had 'innocently' spoken to Piotr who became suspicious. Eventually she ended up breaking down and telling him everything—and he had thought it sounded like fun and told her to count him in.

Then she became worried that the snow wouldn't be thick enough. Kitty wanted it to be good and thick so there was no way that either Remy of Rogue could just simply walk back home. So she had 'innocently' spoken to Ororo, who had also seen that Rogue was hiding her feelings and decided that she would provide some extra snow clouds that evening.

From there, Ororo had told Logan, Logan had told Charles, Charles had told Hank and Hank had announced it happily to the rest of the X-men in secret one morning.

They had thought to put supplies like blankets and water hidden in the backseat where eventually Rogue or Remy would find them and all set to work gathering such necessities.

Then Bobby, who was good with wires and electronics, thought it a shame that they would go to so much work and not be able to see what was happening in the car. So he took it upon himself to install a tiny, near invisible camera in the rear view mirror so that they would be able to see everything. Then he stole Rogue's phone when she wasn't looking and made it so that any number she happened to dial would just go straight back to the mansion's phone line.

Yes, the plan was set perfectly and so far had gone smoothly.

Ororo had followed the car overhead and worsened the snowfall, purposefully making the car have to work harder. Meanwhile, back at the mansion, everyone was sitting on the sofa, armchairs, and some sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the TV, watching Remy and Rogue in the car. The only problem with this whole set-up was that there wasn't any sound—Bobby sheepishly confessed that he had forgotten to install it.

Jean had popped some popcorn and they all sat, enjoying themselves when the phone rang.

They had completely expected this and passed it over to Charles who had rehearsed his lines earlier that day.

"Hello?" He said, trying not to snicker into the phone.

"Professor, its Rogue. The car has stopped on us; can someone come pick us up?"

Charles clicked his tongue, trying to sound thoughtful. "Oh I don't know about that, Rogue, the weather looks frightful and I don't feel comfortable sending anyone else out in it."

Rogue fell silent. Charles looked over to the TV and saw that was she was staring at the phone incredulously. "Um…You sent_us_ out in it!"

"Yes, but the snow wasn't as thick then. And I'm sure that you two can take care of yourselves."

"Professor!" Rogue exclaimed, "Be serious, we need help."

"I get what your saying, but please, try to understand that this is a circumstance beyond my control. It is simply too dangerous to send anyone else out while the weather is so treacherous."

Rogue fell silent again; they could see her on the TV rubbing her temple in exasperation. A few of them stifled giggles at this.

"Well then why don't you send out the jet to come get us-" Rogue started, her voice laced with barely controlled anger.

"No, I'm afraid that wouldn't work. The snow might damage the engine."

"Ok," Rogue started, "Then how about Jean and Ororo come fly out and get us-"

"No, they've erm—both gone to bed."

"What? It's not even eight o'clock yet!"

"Oh—what's that?" Charles said as if someone else were speaking to him, "Rogue, I have to go, Charlie Brown Christmas is about to start. There are supplies for such emergencies as this in the trunk. We'll come get you first thing in the morning, have fun and Merry Christmas!"

"Professor!"

_Click_.

…

Remy watched as Rogue stared at the phone in disbelief. He himself had started to piece this whole thing together. Something about it just didn't seem right. First off, it would be normal that Rogue would go get dinner for everyone, but it was not normal that he was made to come with her.

Second, the snow had gotten insanely thicker after they had gone into the restaurant to get the pizza. So much so that he was certain that a flying white-haired somebody had to have something to do with it.

And thirdly, he was positive that someone had purposefully messed with the car. He was lying through his teeth when he had told Rogue that he knew nothing about cars. And even if he hadn't, anyone could see the abnormally fringed cables and know that someone had deliberately damaged them.

He was willing to bet that there were probably supplies and blankets in the back somewhere. Obviously their teammates were trying to throw them together-something that he didn't mind in the least-but he had to wonder why they were doing it and why they were doing it now when they had never shown any interest in anything like this before.

Oh well, he might as well make the best of a bad—wait, what was he saying? This wasn't a bad situation! He was loving this! This was going to be _fun_.

Sneakily snaking an arm around Rogue's shoulders, he leaned in closer to her and blew gently on her ear. This was a simple move that he knew from years of experience to work. Ears were a girl's weak spot. Always aim for the ears. Though he had no doubt that this would most likely NOT work on Rogue, he still tried it nonetheless.

She didn't even notice. She was still staring at the phone with her mouth slightly ajar. Pulling back, he looked at her profile and his mouth fell into a pout. Hmph. Well, if that wouldn't work then he was going to have to work harder.

"I can't believe him!" Rogue said finally, still in disbelief, "that was so weird!"

His attention was only slightly peaked—besides, it's hard to care about anything else in the world when the woman you're in love with is five inches away from you—but he questioned her remark anyway. "You can't believe who? What did they say?"

"Professor X said that they couldn't come get us until morning!"

He held back a laugh. Yes, obviously this had all been staged. "Oh…well that's not so bad."

Rogue flashed her eyes on him angrily. "We're going to freeze to death! How is that not so bad?"

He scooted a little closer to her, thankful that the front was just one long seat and there was nothing to hold him back. "Don't worry chère," he said quietly into her ear, "Remy will keep you good and warm."

She stared at him for moment, and for one small instant he could have sworn he saw something akin to excitement flash in her eyes. But it passed so quickly, he was sure he must have imagined it. Rogue had never given him any reason to believe that he was ever going to get anywhere with his flirtations.

True there had been the occasional time when she would wait just a little too long to throw his arm off of her shoulder or pull her hand out of his. True that even though she refused him at every turn, still she never tried to avoid his company (not counting the last week) and had even sought him out a time or two.

But she'd never flirted back with him, had never given him any reason to believe that she was enjoying herself. Not that that was going to do anything to stop him, of course.

"Remy better keep his hands to himself!" Rogue snapped after a moment's silence.

"Or we could always do something else to…heat things up," Remy said suggestively, ignoring the dangerous warning in her voice and leaning closer.

Again, she stared at him for a moment before answering. The shiver Remy felt come from her was unmistakable. Though whether it was caused by the dropping temperature in the car or his words, he couldn't be a hundred percent sure. But, he thought to himself, if she would give him five minutes, he would see to it that her shivers were only caused by his all too skillful hands and make her forget that she was even in a car.

Instead of answering his suggestion, Rogue glanced down at the arm that was still around her shoulders and then back up at his face.

"Take it off, or I'll break it off."

Remy reluctantly pulled his arm back, but didn't go back to his side of the car.

"Fine, I will," he nodded before leaning close to her. She leaned away quickly—too quickly—and ended up running the back of her head into the window.

"Remy-" she started but he cut her off.

"But just so you know," he whispered, "tonight, I have something _very_ exciting in mind."

"Uh-What?"

"Oh, don't be afraid. Be…excited. Because it's exciting and it WILL excite you."

Rogue stared at him worriedly—Remy stared back, trying to look sexy (and damned if he didn't). He definitely had something in mind, something VERY—erm—exciting, but he didn't have anything planned. Right now he was mostly just trying to get under Rogue's skin.

Then—to his pleasure, she leaned forward slowly until their noses nearly touched. Remy watched, entranced, as her tongue came out and slid across her lower lip slowly, teasingly. She proceeded to pull the lip into her mouth and bit down on it gently.

This time, he had to hold back a shiver of his own as she made a peculiarly arousing sound. It was something between a moan and sigh and as she let it out, her breath fanned across his neck.

"Remy," she whispered and he shifted—suddenly _very_uncomfortable as she said his name like that.

"Mhmm?" Was all he could manage to get out as he gulped.

Up until that point, her gaze had been on his mouth, but now it rose to meet his eyes.

"Are you hungry?" She asked quietly.

Hell yes he was hungry! He thought unbelievingly. Never in a million years had he thought things would go _this_ well. He wanted to nod excitedly, to scream yes, to grab her and make her his—grab her and let her _know_ exactly how hungry he really was.

But, in order to not look stupid, or like a sex starved maniac, or make her scared of him, instead he opted for the more casual approach.

He dropped one finger to her shoulder and traced lazy circles on it as he tried to make his gaze smoldering. It was not hard—he had smoldered before. It just hadn't ever been this fun. And he had certainly never wanted to smolder anyone this badly before.

"Only if you are, chérie," he purred in answer to her question.

Something in her eyes twinkled, exciting him further.

"Well then," she smiled, "We have that pizza in the back. Wanna grab some?"

Remy instantly felt his 'smolder' fall into a pout. He knew it had been too good to be true. Nevertheless, he had hoped. He would never stop hoping with Rogue. And she may not realize it, but tonight was the perfect night to make her _his._She would not stop him tonight. NO, it was going to happen TONIGHT!

Rogue thought she was so slick, playing like that. Well…she was, but that was beside the point. The point was, she had just fanned the flames and that did nothing to help her situation. If she was going to play like that, then so could Remy.

Remy suddenly grinned—a mischievous grin that spoke in volumes and made Rogue look worried again.

"Why of course, _sweetheart_, I would _love_ some pizza." He said cheerfully while reaching into the backseat with one arm. He didn't move an inch away from her to do this or even break eye contact with her, something she was starting to look uncomfortable about.

He came back with one box and presented it to her.

They stared at each other for a long moment—silently daring one another to break first.

Finally, after a long stretch of silence, Rogue snapped.

"Ok, back off now!"

Remy broke out in a grin. "Are you sure that's what you want?"

"Yes, I'm sure," she rolled her eyes, "do it now!"

"That's what she said."

"Remy!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own X-men or that stupid 'Who Let the Dogs Out song'.**

…

Date: December 22

Time: 8:30

Location: In the front seat of a car on the side of an abandon road.

"Remy, hand me a soda."

"That's what she said."

"What…How is that what she said?"

"She says a lot of stuff. You can't blame her for not makin' sense, Rogue."

"…What?"

Remy grinned and ignored Rogue's confused look. Rogue wasn't sure what he was talking about now, but she supposed that it beat the ringing silence that had filled the car since they had started to eat. But the silence was not what had bothered her. What had bothered was the fact that Remy had decided to punctuate the silence every now and then with obnoxiously loud chewing and then, just as she started to grimace in his direction, sipped on his coke with deliberate noise.

He was only doing it to grate at her nerves and Rogue knew it. But just because she had that knowledge, that did nothing to make her less irritated.

But she was not going to let him win. She could be just as annoying as Remy could be. It was halfway through the meal that Rogue had discovered that the steering wheel made an incredibly annoying creaking noise when she turned it just right. So for the past ten minutes, she had 'accidently' kept knocking into it, filling the car with the creaking, occupied only by Remy's loud chewing.

After the soda bit, they fell silent again. And by silent of course that meant loud chewing, loud drinking, and a lot of the creaking steering wheel.

Rogue was fine, just as long as she had the steering wheel to annoy him with. He had a good poker face, but she could see his eyes narrow the tinniest bit whenever it creaked. So, she was sure that eventually she could get him to crack first, or more like stop him from chewing so loudly.

But then she hadn't counted on that he would start singing 'Who let the dogs out'.

Rogue _hated_ that song with a vengeance—if she could, she would burn every copy of it and then just for fun blow up the house of everyone who liked it. When it had first come out, she had hated it. When Kitty had played it for hours on end, she had hated it. When everytime she had turned on the radio the year that it came out and it was _always_ on, she had hated it.

And now that Remy was singing it to annoying her, Rogue _loathed_ it.

"Who let the dogs out?" He sang softly and looked sideways over at her. "Who, who, who, who?"

Rogue glared menacingly at him, every pretense of being calm lost. She couldn't even begin to describe the fury she felt bubbling inside of her whenever she heard those lyrics. She'd rather be deaf than ever have to hear that stupid song again. She would rather her whole head just fell off if that was what it took.

"_Remy_," she said in a low, dangerous tone, "If you say that one more time-"

"WHO let the dogs-"

Before Remy had finished the lyric, and before Rogue had even noticed what she had done, her half eaten slice of pizza was flung across the car and landed with a loud SPLAT directly on Remy's forehead.

They both fell silent as it slowly slid down the length of his nose, leaving a long, red trail of tomato sauce before it dropped into his lap.

NOW the silence was ringing.

Both of Remy's eyes, on either side of the red streak on his face, narrowed in Rogue's direction as she fought not to break into hysterical laughter. And she was failing. Biting her lip didn't work, neither did taking a deep, steadying breath, and looking at Remy certainly wasn't helping in the least.

"Rogue," he said in low, warning voice that did nothing to ease her amusement. "If I were not a gentleman…" he started before he suddenly grinned wickedly. "Oh wait, I'm not a gentleman."

Rogue just barely dodged the slice of pizza that flew in her direction. She moved at the last second and it smacked into her window, sending tomato sauce flying in ten different directions.

"Don't forget your pepperoni," Remy said before tossing a pepperoni over at her.

This time she wasn't quick enough and it hit her chest and slid greasily down under her shirt.

Remy's eyebrows shot up as he watched its progress. "Lucky pepperoni."

"Remy!" She said indigently before she glanced away from her chest and back over at him. Immediately she burst into unrestrained laughter at his messy appearance. His lips twitched slightly for a moment before he decided to grimace at her instead. Grumbling, he found a napkin and wiped his face clean, ignoring her giggling the whole time.

After about five minutes of this, Rogue was finally calm and attempting to extricate the pepperoni from her shirt while Remy's prying eyes watched her with interest.

"Can I clean up that streak?" He asked, leaning forward and licking his lips.

"NO." She told him firmly before quickly wiping it up with a napkin. Finally she pulled the pepperoni out of her shirt and wrapped it in the napkin. Remy watched this, pouting at her from being told no.

They fell silent again as Rogue attempted to clean up the mess on her window, trying to ignore Remy's stare as she went. She could feel his eyes traveling over her, causing her cheeks to burn at how openly he was looking in all of her more curvy areas. She determinedly averted her gaze away from him and concentrated on cleaning the window.

She would, of course, like to tell him to keep his eyes to himself but Rogue knew from more than one experience that once she told Remy not to do something, he was going to do it. Especially when she told him not to look at her like _that_. Like…well, to be frank, like he wanted to eat her.

A hot burning in her cheeks made Rogue thankful that she was facing the window and Remy couldn't see it. Thinking thoughts like that was not good. Deadly skin and ravishment was not a good combination. And it certainly was not a good combination when they were trapped on the side of the road in the middle of snow storm with no way to get back home. If Remy decided to kiss her again, he would undoubtedly pass out _again,_ and there was no way for him to get any medical attention.

Finally the window was clean. There was nothing to keep her attention anymore so Rogue turned to find Remy still staring.

"Will you stop that?" She grumbled as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Slowly, he grinned. Oh, that wasn't good. Rogue cast him a worried look and pulled her arms closer against her. A grinning Remy was never a good thing. Especially when he grinned like _that._ That grin spoke volumes about his character, and pretty much let you know without him telling you the type of subject he was thinking about.

"For some reason, I don't think you want me to stop," he said in low voice.

Rogue rolled her eyes, though she was growing increasingly more nervous. "That's probably because you're brain dead."

"How is your training going?" He asked suddenly, changing the subject. "Can you touch yet?"

"No." She said quickly. Maybe a little too quickly.

It was, of course, a lie. She could touch—but not much. And she never knew how long she would be able to do it, either. Just as soon as she would start to get a hang of it, she would lose control all over again. Poor Logan, who had been the only able (since his healing ability) person that could help her, had gotten drained multiple times. But she had been thankful that Professor X had been there everytime to wipe him from her mind afterwards.

Rogue could touch, but she couldn't trust the ability, not yet anyway. If there had been one person that she could pick to test it out with, it would be Remy. But he was the last person on earth that she ever wanted to hurt. Well…most of the time anyway. She didn't want to seriously injure or end up killing him by her own impatience.

All she had to do was wait, and train, and soon enough she would be able to touch. But not now. She wasn't secure enough in her confidence to keep control yet.

"Are you sure?" Remy asked, slowly edging closer to her. "We could try it out."

"You better keep to your side of the car!" She told him warningly.

"But if I did that, I wouldn't be able to kiss you."

"Kiss yourself, you want it more." She shot at him.

Remy drew back and stared at her in mock hurt. "You are so mean! You know what you need? You need to get-"

"If you finish that sentence-"

"Kissed until you can't breath," he told her with a smirk, "kissed until your lips hurt and your thoughts are muddled and all you can think is-'Remy'!," he said in a goofy and over dramatized breathless voice, "'Remy, take me now! How oh _how_did I ever live without you, you sexy, _sexy_animal?'"

Rogue glared at him. "I don't sound like that!"

"Not now," he grinned, "but you would once I was through with you."

She gulped hard and tried not to blush.

"Nothing to say?" he teased. "Breathless already, are we?"

"How about I make you breathless?" She glared. "In the form of punching you in the gut?"

"So you don't deny that you're breathless?"

"I won't deny that I think that your etiquette is equivalent to a monkey's!"

"Hey!" He said seriously, "A monkey's etiquette is nothin' to joke about! You leave that monkey alone."

"What!"

"You heard me. Now come over here and keep me warm."

She continued to glare at him from across the car as he gestured for her to get into his lap. She really wished he would stop—he really didn't know how hard it was for her. Keeping him—COUGH—'warm' was not something that she would mind very much. But hurting him when there was no way for them to get medical attention if need be was not something that Rogue was up to tonight.

She didn't dare tell Remy that she could (possibly) touch. He wouldn't wait to listen to why she wasn't going to, and he would probably jump her as soon as the words, 'I can' came out of her mouth and end up killing himself.

…

Remy stared Rogue down with as much intensity that he could muster. Well, maybe not as much as he could, that would be too much intensity—even for Rogue. He would save that for when it was really needed. But not now.

He could sense some restraint on Rogue's part at his teasing. Though whether it was restraint on if she wanted to hit him or if she wanted to kiss him, he couldn't be sure. He was willing to bet (or maybe he was just hoping) that it was probably the latter. Or…maybe he was wrong. Rogue had never been an easy person to read. Particularly since she wouldn't open up to him. He had actually gotten her to once or twice, but they had both been brief moments.

Just because she was planning on fighting him every step of the way did not cause Remy to re-think his actions or change his mind. In fact, he actually liked the chase. The chase was what made it fun. Though if it had been solely up to him, the chase with Rogue would have been over weeks ago and they would already have had the _real_ fun.

But no matter; if she was going to be like that, then he would just have to try harder. And she might not have thought of it yet, but eventually it was going to get very cold in this car and they were going to have to keep warm somehow.

YES, Remy thought with a grin, _somehow_ they would have to keep warm.

And what better a way to keep warm other than the obvious answer? The obvious answer being huddling together for warmth, of course. But, no, the best way to stay warm (and the only _logical_solution that Remy could think of) was to have sex. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of sex. Then, just to stay warmer, they could have more sex. Then, when that was through: sex.

Then maybe cuddling. But right after that, it would probably be best to get back to the sex. Then, when they were through with the sex, they should have more sex, just to be safe. And to be even safer, sex again. And it might seem like a lot at that point, but there might be a strong possibility that they could get cold again, so just for good measure, they should probably-

"What are leering about?" Rogue asked suddenly, cutting into his thoughts.

"Nothin'." He said quickly. "I mean, sex. I mean, nothin'."

Rolling her eyes, Rogue leaned away from him and put her back to her door, drawing her legs up in front of her to sit Indian-style. "It's still snowing," she commented as she watched the snow drift lazily past his window.

Indeed it was. Remy narrowed his eyes at the snow. It wasn't coming down nearly as hard as it had been, but the amount was still formidable. There was no way that they would be able to simply get out of the car and walk home; they would freeze to death first.

"Yep," he agreed, "It sure is."

He wondered if Rogue had come to any of the same conclusions in her head that he had come to in his. This whole series of incidents was too suspicious for their team-mates not to be behind it. Surely Rogue had thought of it too? Then again, maybe she hadn't. It had to be very distracting to have someone who looked as good as Remy did sitting next to them. She probably couldn't even think straight.

Yes, Remy conceded in his mind, that was probably the case. He was, after all, very distracting.

"Wait a second…" Rogue said suddenly as she suspiciously stared out at the snow. "You don't think….No…Surely not…"

Damn. Maybe he wasn't as good looking as he thought. Ha! Now _that_was a laughable thought.

Rogue diverted her gaze to his face. "It's snowing a lot harder than it was…and Kitty forced us both to come out…and the car…and the Professor…Oh my God!"

Remy placed his face in his hands as Rogue started to search for her phone.

"I am going to _kill_ _them_!" She raged as she punched the number into her phone maliciously.

Leaning his head back against the headrest, Remy listened with some amusement as she waited for someone to answer. The way she was breathing reminded him vaguely of an angry bull—he was almost surprised when he didn't see any steam shooting from her nose or ears.

Someone picked up on the other line and Remy strained to hear. It sounded like the Professor answering in a pleasant tone.

"Hello Rogue, how is everything going?"

Rogue gripped the phone until her knuckles turned white. Remy stared at her worriedly.

"Professor! You should be ASHAMED of yourself!" She said in a voice that would usually be directed at naughty children. "I know what you did! I know what you _all_ did! When I get out of here, I'm gettin' you all back—mark my words, you will all PAY!"

"Um…" The Professor started before he seemed to change his mind. "Uh…uh…bye!"

_Click_.

Rogue made a noise that closely resembled an angry bear and threw the phone into the backseat in anger. Remy turned towards his window to hide his amusement. The last thing he should do right now was to let Rogue see that.

"Can you BELIEVE…" Rogue started before she fell short. "Wait a second…ARE YOU IN ON THIS TOO?"

Remy jerked his gaze over towards her. Oh no. This wasn't good. "Non, chérie, Remy wouldn't do something like this."

Of course he would. But that wasn't the point. The point was that he hadn't done this. And if he was going to end up having to spend hours and hours in the car with Rogue, he didn't want it to be the angry grizzly bear version of Rogue. He would rather it be the version of Rogue that like to cuddle and laugh and tell him how he reeked of masculinity and liked to have absurd amounts of sex.

Not that he'd ever met that Rogue, or had any indication that she even existed, but Remy was sure she was buried in there somewhere. It was his job to get her out…And get her completely happy and sated and wanting more.

"You're leering again!" Rogue snapped angrily and tossed her napkin at him.

Somehow the napkin fell before it even got halfway to Remy and they both looked at it for a few moments, confused as it lay on the seat next to them.

Remy finally blinked and looked back into her face. "I swear I had nothing to do with this. Believe me, if I had planned for you to be stuck somewhere—that's what she said—it wouldn't be in a freezing car with hardly any light and no room to roll around in." He grinned as she blushed, "It would be in a nice, warm hotel with a big bed covered in soft, durable sheets-"

"Will you shut-up, already?" Red faced, she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

"I'm so fond of you," he said softly, "And nearly freezing you to death would hurt you, yeah? Remy wouldn't ever hurt his Rogue."

Rogue was suddenly flustered now and somehow redder in the face than she had been a moment ago. "I…You—don't—I'm not yours!"

Remy leaned back against his door and smirked at her. "Sure you are. You just don't know it yet."

She shifted uncomfortably under his stare. "Of course I do, you just told me so."

"So you're admitting that your mine?" He inquired.

"No!" She said loudly, "I was saying that—I—oh shut-up, Remy!"

"You can have me too, you know," he told her seriously, "I'm your Remy. Don't you know?"

Silence fell as Rogue studied him. Remy waited for her response to his proclamation. A bundle of nervousness knotted in his chest, but he kept his face smooth. Of course he had told her before that he liked her—quite often in fact—but never before had he put it so bluntly.

Never had he told her that if she wanted him, he was there. She could have him anytime, anywhere, anyway she wanted. Not only would he be willing—but happy—being whatever she wanted him to be. Whatever kind of man she wanted, he was willing to bend to her liking. She didn't know it, but Rogue was the center of his universe and he was perfectly happy with that.

How she couldn't feel him tremble when she touched him, hear his heart about to beat out of his chest when she came near, notice that he couldn't breathe properly when he caught sight of her, he wasn't sure. To everyone else all of that seemed quite evident, but Rogue was somehow blind to it.

He was her Remy whether she wanted him or not. That's just the way it was.

Just when he was about to say something—anything—to break the silence, Rogue took a deep, shuddery breath.

"Remy-"

The phone in the backseat let out a shrill, annoying ring, efficiently cutting into and ruining the moment. Remy silently cursed the damned thing. Right now he would very much like to snap it in half. But he kept his face smooth and cool, not letting any of his annoyance show.

Rogue blinked, seemingly disturbed by the moment before she reached back and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

Remy noticed with some interest that her voice held a touch of shakiness to it. But he wasn't able to think much on it as Kitty's voice rang clearly out of the earpiece. Making a face, Rogue pulled it an inch away from her ear before scowling at the steering wheel.

"-and I'm tired of you two not telling each other how you feel," Kitty was ranting, "So I'm sorry if it upsets you, but you and Remy are staying there tonight. There are supplies in the back-"

"Kitty, I'm going to kill you," Rogue said pleasantly.

"No you won't," Remy heard Kitty say confidently without pausing. "Because by morning you and Remy will be lovers and you will thank me."

Rogue's face flamed red as she gripped the phone harder. "Kitty, I'm going to hang you up by your ankles over a pit of snakes. Then, I'm going catch your hair on fire and a shove my foot so far up your ass-"

"Bye Rogue!" Kitty said cheerfully. "Have fun! Merry Christmas!"

"Kitty! You better come get us-"

_Click_.

"AH!" Rogue yelled angrily, "I wish they would stop doing that!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, It's a Wonderful Life, Scrooge, A Christmas Carol, or anything else you recognize.**

…

Date: December 22

Time: 9:07

Location: Halfway in the trunk of a car, halfway out.

Rogue grumbled under her breath angrily as she rummaged through the trunk of the car. Kitty was mostly on her mind; Kitty and her scheming. Though obviously, more people were in on this whole thing other than Kitty. The more Rogue thought about it, the more she came to realize that.

They had purposely damaged something under the hood of the car just so this absurd plan of theirs could go smoothly. What exactly did they expect to happen? That just because she and Remy spent a few hours together in a cramped car, huddling for warmth, keeping each other company, and talking they would tear each others clothes off and thus fall in love?

Not that she wasn't already in love…though, they didn't know that.

And something that Kitty didn't seem to understand was that sex did not lead to love. Let's not forget that.

Or…was it possible that everyone saw through her façade? Was there a chance that everyone knew that she loved Remy? No, she had been careful to disguise that part of herself. Sure she would love to tell Remy about that er…interesting subject; she wanted to whole world to know it.

But not now. Not while she didn't have control of her powers. She couldn't tell Remy how she felt quite yet because he would be on her like white on rice if she did and he would end up in the emergency room. So Rogue did the only thing she knew to do. And that was to keep him an arms length until it was safe.

Fight him off. Fight him at every turn, every wink, every insinuation, every dimple inducing grin, and every offer to consummate their relationship. Until the day when she finally did gain control of her powers, that is. Rogue had no doubt that on that day when she finally did succumb to his advances, he would probably have a stroke from shock.

"Ha, stroke," Rogue muttered unconsciously, "that's what she said."

Suddenly she stopped searching the trunk as she realized what had just come out of her mouth.

"Dammit Remy!" She snapped angrily. This was not good. Obviously he was rubbing off on her—that's what she said—and it wasn't for the better.

"Yes, honey?" Remy drawled from inside of the car.

Growling, Rogue heaved the spare tire out of the way to find the sealed plastic box in the trunk, supposedly packed with the necessary essentials for survival. She wondered vaguely why the others had hidden it so well in the trunk as she shivered and pulled her coat more securely around her.

"Do you need some help back there?" Remy asked.

'_That's__what__she__said_', Rogue thought. Groaning, she slapped a hand to her forehead. "No! Stay there!"

"Hey, you're not the boss of me!" Remy argued.

"Then why are you still in the car?" She yelled back, annoyed.

"It's cold." He said, sounding very much like a child.

Rolling her eyes, Rogue picked up the box and closed the trunk, just as Remy was getting out of the car.

"Why are you getting out?" She asked as she trudged back around to the driver's door. "Get in." She ordered before opening the door and slipping awkwardly back inside.

Remy hopped in and grinned at her. "That's what she said."

"I suppose she did," Rogue muttered carelessly as she pealed off her now snow-soaked coat and cap. Hopefully there was a blanket in this box, or else she was most certainly going to end up freezing to death.

There was a blanket in the box. One thick wool blanket that was_just_ big enough to fit two people if they sat very close to each other. There was also a small lantern, matches, extra gloves, bottles of water, breath mints, a portable little tape player, and a book entitled 'A Mutant's Guide to Kama Sutra' along with two boxes of condoms.

Needless to say, Rogue was bristling with anger as she opened her door and tossed the last three items out onto the road.

Remy pouted at this but didn't say anything.

Rogue shifted around for a moment before she bent down to wring some of the water out of her pants. The snow had soaked the bottoms of both legs, but thankfully, her boots had protected her feet. But now the wet blue jeans were rubbing uncomfortably at the skin of her legs.

It was already cold in the car—and she was already cold enough from taking her coat off, so soaking jeans was not helping warm her up in the least. Of course, there was simply nothing that she could do about that…

Except for taking off her pants and letting them dry.

But this would most likely end up with Remy attacking her like a wild animal, of course.

And as interesting as that thought was to Rogue, her common sense was still perfectly intact. As were the pants that were wet and had a strong chance of giving her frostbite. But it was ok…Rogue racked her brain, trying to remember anything she had ever learned in school about frostbite.

It was never anything good that she could recall. She knew she had learned more about it, but all she could recall was something about purple blisters, gangrene, nerve damage…amputation.

No! Not amputation. That only happened when it got to fingers and toes…or maybe not.

"I'm takin' off my pants!" Rogue said suddenly in a wild, panicked tone as these thoughts went through her mind.

Remy, who had been drinking some of the water, choked as it flew out of his mouth and onto the dashboard. He turned to her with a gaping mouth and wide, appreciative eyes.

"Well it's about damn time!" He said enthusiastically as he quickly put his bottle of water in the cup holder.

"No, Remy!" Her hands flew up as he made a move for her. "I didn't mean it like that." She flushed as he looked at her quizzically. "I...My pants are wet from the snow," she explained, "I don't want to have my leg amputated from frostbite, so I'm takin' them off."

"I highly doubt you would get frostbite from…" he coughed suddenly. "I mean…you're right." Leaning back, he casually waved a hand at her. "Proceed."

"I am _not_ going to let you watch me undress." She glared at him.

He lifted an eyebrow and smirked. "And how are you going to undress without me watchin' you?"

"You're not gonna look." She said in a warning tone as she climbed into the backseat. "Hand me that blanket."

"I won't if you're just plannin' to cover yourself up with it."

Growling, Rogue reached over the seat and proceeded to have a tug of war with Remy over the blanket.

"Remy, let go of the damn blanket, you ape!"

"I will not. You are not the boss of me."

"Stop sayin' that!"

He looked very much like he was trying not to laugh. "Ok, you can have it on one condition."

She stopped to glare at him. "What?" She snapped angrily.

He grinned. "Say banana fana fudge."

Her grip on the blanket slackened at this strange request. Rogue stared at Remy as if he had sprouted wings. "Why in _blue__hell_ would you want me to say that?"

"Just say it."

"Why?"

"Because…It's a funny sentence. Say it and you get the blanket."

"I…ugh…fine." Rolling her eyes, Rogue glared at the ceiling and ground out the words through her teeth. "Banana…fana fudge. You dumbass."

Remy instantly let go of the blanket with a strangely satisfied look on his face. Rogue did not want to know what was so satisfying or funny about saying that odd phrase. Remy was beyond a doubt the weirdest person she had ever known. She stared at him confusedly for another moment as she slowly pulled the blanket to her, trying to somehow figure out his brain by just looking at him.

But it was impossible, of course. If Remy didn't want you to be able to read his emotions, you weren't going to. And there absolutely no way that anyone, especially Rogue, would ever be able to understand the random and scattered array of dirty and confusing thoughts that undoubtedly were all that went through his mind. How he was able to ever say a normal sentence was beyond her.

But Rogue didn't want to waste time on thinking about the tattered remains of Remy's brains floating around in his head. Surely, if she didn't take off her pants now, her leg would just fall off with no warning.

Yes, SURELY that could happen. She was positive of that.

…

Rogue told Remy not to look while she was removing her pants in the backseat. And do you think he listened? Oh _course_…he didn't. What kind of man would he be if he obeyed this order? Or better yet, what kind of man would he be if he just 'accidently' happened to look in the rearview mirror while she was slipping her pants off only to catch a glimpse at one long, pale, slender leg?

Because whatever kind of man that was, that was Remy.

He couldn't help it. It was an involuntary action. His eyes just…went that way.

"Nice legs," he smirked without turning around to see the annoyed look on Rogue's face.

"Remy!" She burst. "I told you not to look you…you…butthole!"

Remy just chuckled in response as she climbed back over the seat (with the blanket wrapped tightly around her) and back down next to him. He turned to look at her and eye the blanket with distaste. She simply glared back at him, causing him to grin.

"Hey," she said after a few moments of silence, "I forgot! I can-"

"Do somethin' with your legs?" He asked hopefully and was met with a punch in the arm.

"No, cut that out. I can call a tow truck or a cab company to come get us!" Rogue suddenly looked a good deal brighter than she had a few moments as she pulled out the phone. "Kitty is going down," she said happily as she dialed the operator to get the number for the tow company.

Remy yawned. "That's what she said."

Rogue ignored him. "I bet she didn't think of _this_!"

Sighing quietly to himself, Remy leaned back and watched her dial the operator and then wait. His plan to finally make Rogue his once and for all may or may not be about to fall in. Being stuck in the car with her certainly helped him so if she was somehow able to get them a ride out of here that would not be good.

Or…oh the other hand…

…

The rest of the X-men at the Institute were definitely enjoying themselves. Sitting around the TV and eating gingerbread men, they long ago had stopped trying to discern what was being said in the car, and instead provided their own dialogue.

This had ended up in a lot of giggling, Kurt falling off the couch, Scott nearly wetting himself, and Kitty choking on a gumdrop.

Charles sat happily in his wheelchair with his hands folded, watching his minions—AHEM—his students having fun. He hoped that Rogue and Remy wouldn't become _too_ cold, because that would just cut into all the fun. They would end up having to go get them out of the car and if that happened, what would they watch on TV?

He had already watched It's a Wonderful Life three times this month, and that was the only Christmas movie he really cared to watch. That, and A Christmas Carol, but Scrooge seemed to get less interesting every year.

But he had nothing to worry about; Rogue and Remy weren't going to get too cold. At least he hoped so…

It was just as everyone was wondering why Rogue had stripped her pants off, and Kitty was pointing out that it was because Rogue couldn't stand to have them on when around Remy, that the phone rang.

They had fully expected it, of course. They could clearly see Rogue handling her phone. And they all remembered that Bobby had rigged it so that any number that Rogue dialed went strait to their phone line.

Kitty picked it up and passed it over to Jean, who was best at disguising her voice.

Clearing her throat, Jean answered.

"Hello," Jean answered in a voice that was sterner and deeper than her own.

"Hi," they could all hear Rogue's voice on the other end say, "Is this the operator?"

Jean didn't miss a beat. "Yes Ma'am, this is the operator. How may I help you?

"I need the number for any towing company in Bayville."

"I'm sorry," Jean couldn't help but grin, "But Bayville doesn't have any towing companies."

"Uh, yes it does," Rogue argued, sounding like she thought the 'operator' was not right in the head.

"No, but Bayville has quite a few bowling alleys. Would you like me to connect you to one of those?"

"What!"

They all turned to see Rogue on the screen turning red from anger and had to covering their mouths with their hands to keep their laughter from being heard.

"I'm sorry," Jean managed to control her amusement to say, "Would you prefer a miniature golf course?"

The other end was silent for a moment.

"No," Rogue said finally, "I would like the number for a cab company or a towing company."

"Like I said Ma'am," Jean said cheerfully, "Bayville does not have any towing companies and incidentally, they don't have any cab companies either."

"Lady, what the hell is wrong with you!" Rogue burst. "I live in Bayville and I know for a fact that they have both of those!"

"Well I've lived in Bayville for years and I've never seen either of those." Jean said matter-of-factly.

"Ok, I want a different operator you psycho!" Rogue yelled.

To keep their laughter from being heard, Charles placed his face in both hands, Kitty put her head under the couch pillows, Amara ran in the other room, Scott, nearly wetting himself again (he had drank too much cider), ran to bathroom, and Jean gritted her teeth together and tried to think of something not funny.

"There are no other operators; I'm the last one left!" Jean said brightly.

"AH!"

…

Rogue ended the call on the phone and flung it onto the seat between them. Remy stared at her, suddenly very happy. But he hid it of course. It wouldn't do for Rogue to look over and see an insane grin on his face. And she would most probably not be happy if she knew why he was so happy. It was of course because he knew there was no way for her to escape. This night just kept getting better and better.

"This night just keeps getting crappier and crappier!" Rogue snapped angrily as she crossed her arms over her chest. "The operator is on crack!" She exclaimed as she waved a hand towards the phone between them. "Did you hear what she said?"

Remy couldn't help the tiny smirk that lifted the corner of his mouth. "Rogue…that was Jean."

Rogue stared at him. "What?"

"That was obviously Jean trying to disguise her voice. Couldn't you tell? I could."

Through the light from the streetlamp above them Remy could see Rogue's confused look.

"But I dialed the operator, not the house!"

"They must have rigged your phone, chère." He thoughtfully scratched his chin, wondering how they had managed all of this. They had gone to some great lengths to keep him and Rogue stuck together. They must be really bored to have gone through all of this. And Rogue…It would be best to keep Rogue from all sharp objects for the next month or so.

"How do you—why would they—what the hell!" Rogue slapped the steering wheel, causing the loud creaking sound to fill the car. Remy winced at the sound but she didn't notice.

She picked up the phone, started to dial, but then seemed to think better of it and put it back down again.

"Oh what's the point?" She asked sadly. "I'm gonna be stuck here no matter how loud I scream."

Feeling a little guilty about his enthusiasm in staying in the car, Remy leaned forward and slid an arm around her shoulders.

Rogue looked up at him. "You take any opportunity you get don't you?" she asked suddenly and nodded toward his arm.

He grinned slowly. "Of course I do. And since you're sad, I want to comfort you. Now, if you want, you can kiss me anywhere you want, and I will allow this." His eyes sparkled down at her as she rolled her eyes. "I know that's givin' a lot but I don't like seein' you upset, so I'm willing to do this. Just for your benefit of course."

"Yes, I'm sure that's the only reason," she murmured and then smiled. "Thanks Remy."

"Thanks for what?" He asked, "You didn't even kiss me yet."

"Oh—shut it!" She said while playfully punching him in the shoulder. "We may not be able to get out of here but…wait a second!" Rogue suddenly perked up. Remy worriedly (and with some amusement) remembered that look in her eyes. She had obviously just thought of an idea, an idea that wouldn't probably be to Kitty and the rest of the X-men's detriment.

Without explaining the look, Rogue grabbed the phone once more and dialed.

"Hey Professor," she said innocently when Charles answered. "Put me on speaker phone please."

…

Charles wondered what Rogue could want this time, and also why she sounded nice. It worried him. She probably had some devious plan in mind for all of them. But it was entertainment so what the hell. He pushed the button for the speaker phone as everyone leaned forward.

"You're on speaker phone now, Rogue," he said as he placed it on the coffee table so that everyone could hear.

"Oh good," Rogue's voice said sweetly. "I just wanted to say…Jean, Kitty broke your curling iron because she was mad at you, you didn't lose it like you thought. Kitty, remember that gingerbread man you ate last week that you said tasted weird? That was because Kurt farted on it when you left the room. Professor, Jean and Scott break your 'no sharing bedrooms unless married' rule every night. Amara, Bobby said that he thinks you're whiny. Amara, actually, scratch that, everyone says that you're whiny. Especially Logan. He says it all the time. Ororo-"

"Rogue please!" Charles grabbed the phone up off of the table and turned the speaker off.

He had gone very pale when she had mentioned Jean and Scott's rule breaking. How hard was it to follow one simple…ok, it wasn't simple. But how hard was it to follow one simple rule…ok, it wasn't just one rule. There was a bazillion rules in the Xavier institute. If there wasn't, it wouldn't be called the Xavier institute, it would be called the Xavier do whatever you want funhouse.

And he refused to change the name just because no one could follow the rules.

During Rogue's speech, Jean and Scott has blushed a beet red, Amara was trying not to whine about how mean Logan and Bobby were, Kitty was gagging as she remembered eating the strange tasting gingerbread man, and Kurt was trying to sneak out of the room without her noticing.

Rogue, who they could see on the TV screen, was grinning from ear to ear now.

"OK then, I'll go. Oh, but I should mention…those pink frilly panties that we found in the basement that I said were mine, I lied. They aren't mine. They're Bobby's. You all have a good night."

Charles paled even more at this disturbing bit of news. Glad that he was the only one who had heard this, he ended the call and turned back to the suddenly quiet group of people in his living room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of these Characters or the song Blue Christmas.**

…

Date: December 22

Time: 10:49 pm

Location: Behind the wheel of a car, as far away from Remy Lebeau as possible.

"Rogue."

"No."

"Rogue."

"No, I'm fine."

"You're shivering. You're cold. I am too. And the best solution for this problem is-"

"No! I will not!"

Remy glared. Rogue glared. Remy's solution to warming up was to share body heat. And that would entail all of touching. A lot of…cuddling. Rogue knew that once she was there he would try something. And she also knew that once she was there that she might…let him.

And that wouldn't work!

She just had to remember that he could die. He could touch her skin…her icy and shivering skin that was covered in goose bumps because she was so cold. Her pants were mostly dry and she had put them back on, but they didn't help much. Her coat was still soaked. So she huddled under the blanket, curled up and shivering.

Her teeth chattered, her fingers were numb, and her toes…well, they were actually ok inside of her boots. But she was sure that her nipples were going to fall off any minute. In the rearview mirror she could see that her nose and ears were red. Even the inside of her mouth was cold. Which was odd.

But she couldn't lean against Remy because he might die…Of course, he could also die from freezing. And come to think of it, so could she. Hm…so all she had to decide now was which death sounded more enjoyable. If they froze they would just fall asleep. After freezing for hours of course. If she drained him…he would probably die and she would have enough energy to make it home and to the warmth.

Ah, the warmth.

But her annoying conscience kept her from taking that course of action. Well…that, and because the thought of never seeing Remy again sparked a panicky fear in her. How could she ever go a day without seeing that smirk, or hearing that accent, or fighting off his many attempts to seduce her? She couldn't.

"Ok," he said in a voice that shook from his own shivering, "I don't care what you say, Remy's cold, and he wants under that blanket."

Well…it wasn't like she could refuse to let him under. That would be stupid. He was cold…but he also had a coat when she didn't. But she wasn't going to tell him to tough it out when she couldn't even do that.

"Ok Remy," she shivered, "I'll come over there. But NO funny business. Keep yours hands to yourself!"

"Yes, I get it," he agreed quickly.

"And no explicitly dirty stories."

"Hmph. Fine then...But you know you like em'."

Rogue didn't have an answer for this. She arranged herself _slooowly_ so that she could _slooowly_slide across the seat and she _slooowly_ pulled the blanket with her so that the cold couldn't get under it. She moved _slooowly_…until Remy, losing his patience, grabbed her and jerked her up against him.

"Ah! Remy! I was trying not to let the cold…" but she faltered when she felt heat coming off of him. Her cheek had pressed into his chest when he pulled her to him and unconsciously she shifted closer to try to capture more of the warmth.

His arms were around her tightly and the blanket was over both of them now. Her left palm was pressed flat on his chest and she could feel the soft (yet it seemed irregularly fast) thump thump of his heartbeat against it. He smelled…clean. Like spicy aftershave and soap.

But the most important part of how he felt was that he was _warm_. Oddly warm for someone who claimed to be so cold that they had to have someone's body heat to warm them up. But she wasn't a doctor; she didn't know how the human body worked. Remy probably really was cold but his body just didn't feel like it.

Yes, that was probably it.

Though she had always expected that it would feel this way to be held by Remy, Rogue was a little surprised when she realized how…_right_ it felt. How it felt very right and secure and like the whole world didn't exist when he put his arms around her. Any anger she was feeling towards Kitty and her other 'friends' for some reason dissipated. All worries of freezing to death or losing a leg were gone. Even that horrid song 'Who Let the Dogs Out' didn't seem so annoying at the moment.

Both of Remy's hands were on her back and moving up and down. She supposed he was hoping the friction would cause her back to warm up. But she didn't ask him. It was be stupid to interrupt him while he was busy doing something that felt so very good.

…

Remy wasn't cold.

And that wasn't just because that he had Rogue's body so close to his. He hadn't really been that cold in the first place. His trench coat warmed him sufficiently enough. Not only that, but he was a very hot natured person. Which you might think is a tad strange since he always wears his trench coat.

But he had his reasons for that. It was worth being hot all time when he wore it. It was great for-COUGH-borrowing things that didn't belong to him, it made him look cool and mysterious, the ladies always loved it, and…it was his security blanket.

But enough about the coat.

He wasn't cold. But Rogue was. It made him feel very…not good about himself to see her suffering from the cold weather when he was perfectly fine. Her suffering made him want to blow something up. Because if he blew something up, then at least there would be some fire to warm up to. Then she would be very happy with him, tell him he was her hero and gush over his biceps, propose marriage, and then they could fly off to France for a long honeymoon.

It could happen.

Ok, it probably wouldn't happen. But it was fun to fantasize about. Especially that part about the honeymoon.

But getting back on subject…Remy pulled Rogue to him to warm her up. This move was entirely for her benefit of course. It really was.

He honestly didn't think when he pulled her to him about how sweet she would smell and the feel of her soft body pressed to his hard one. He didn't think to try to regulate his heartbeat (though this was rather impossible when around Rogue) or to leave some breathing room between them.

And for some VERY strange reason, it didn't occur to Remy that this moment, of all moments, was probably not the best one to start a serious conversation.

"Rogue?" He asked softly and she tilted her head to look up into his face.

"Yeah?" she asked quietly.

"When you…" he hesitated. "When you gain control of your powers…what happens…with us?"

"What do you mean?" She asked nervously as she stared at his chest intently.

"Um…I mean are you finally goin' to give Remy a little love." He grinned though his insides were in nervous knots waiting for her response. Really, he could care less about whether her skin was touchable or not. Sure he would love to touch her, but touching wasn't everything. You had to have more to a relationship than just kissing…among other things. But Remy would rather have a Rogue he couldn't touch than no Rogue at all.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked, obviously avoiding the question.

He lifted an eyebrow that she didn't see. "How come suddenly you don't understand anythin' Remy's sayin'?"

One of her shoulders lifted and then fell. "I don't know, Remy; you're just not makin' any sense."

"Rogue, be serious."

"You be serious."

"I'm tryin' to be."

"Ok then," she said simply.

"Rogue!"

"What?"

"You never answered my question."

"What question?" She yawned.

"The one about…" Remy searched his mind to remember what he had asked. This strange conversation and the feel of Rogue against him were causing his thoughts to muddle. "Dammit I forgot!"

"Ok then."

He sighed. His Rogue was almost as good at avoiding uncomfortable conversations as he was.

_Almost_.

"Aha! I remember now!" He exclaimed, though it was a lie, his mind was still a blank.

"Fine Remy!" Rogue sighed angrily. "When I can control my powers I'm going to date you. You were right, you're my Remy. If_I_ can touch you without killing you, you aren't going to be going out with any other woman. Happy now?"

Of COURSE he was happy now. He was elated. He was ecstatic. He was floating on clouds and he was mildly shocked by the turn of events. What exactly had he done to make her say that? What had he done to make her want to go out with him? It was probably his sparkling personality and impossibly good looks.

He loved her. Never more so than at that exact moment and he ached to tell her so. But he didn't want to scare her off. She was just talking about going out for a date or two. She wasn't talking about love.

But if he had anything to do with it, she would. Eventually. Maybe eventually she could come to love him as much as he loved her. Of course, she was going to have to. Once he got her, he wasn't ever letting her go.

"That would make me very happy," he said quietly and unconsciously tightened his arms around her.

And that was when the tense silence fell.

…

Date: December 23

Time: 12:01 am

Location: Comfortable asleep in Remy Lebeau's warm arms.

"Rogue, wake up chère."

Rogue awoke to Remy shaking her gently. But no…why was Remy in her bed? And why would Remy be waking her up? Clearly, she was still sleeping. Yes, that was the only explanation. Rogue certainly didn't remember Remy climbing into bed with her. Really though, she didn't remember even getting into bed herself.

But oh well. This was nice dream. Remy felt good wrapped around her. Nice and warm and comfortable. Christmas music was playing from somewhere close by, but she didn't look around to see. If she opened her eyes she might wake up. But it sounded like the gentle rhythm of 'Blue Christmas'.

"Rogue," He was shaking her again. Rogue really wished he would stop. He was going to interrupt a dream of himself.

"You're messin' it up," she mumbled sleepily as she snuggled closer.

He stopped shaking. "Messin' what up?" He asked, and Rogue noted idly that there was a touch of amusement to his tone.

"The dream," she sighed into his neck, just barely an inch away. In her dreams she was always able to touch Remy. In fact, Remy was the only person that she ever dreamed about being able to touch. And this Remy was not moving away from her, so she was sure that she couldn't be awake.

"You're not dreamin' sweetheart," he laughed, "though I'm flattered that you think you are. Do you dream of me often?"

She only heard ever other word. "All the time," she mumbled. "But you don't talk this much."

There was a long pause.

"Really?" He sounded interested. "What do I usually do in your dreams?"

A loud male voice suddenly cut through the air. "HEY, are you coming or what?"

"That's what she said," Remy muttered.

Rogue's eyes flew open at this intrusion. She didn't often have dreams of Remy plus one strange man. Remy was gazing down at her head on his chest, looking amused. She fought not to flush as she remembered their conversation.

A strange man in a big, rumbling truck was sitting next to the car and looking at them. She tried to work through her sleepy thoughts to figure out who he was, what he was doing here, why they were here, and why this strange man wanted them to come with him.

"Yes, mon ami," Remy called to the man, "we're coming." He turned back and smiled down at her. "I got us a ride home. He has chains on his tires," he said happily.

The word 'home' seemed to flip a switch in her. Rogue sat straight up, throwing the blanket off of them in the process. She _hadn't_ been dreaming, they were still stuck in this damned car, and there was a way to get home. HOME! Home, where Kitty and the rest of her evil team-mates lived and also where she would go back to her room…her empty room.

When they were back home, things would go back to normal. Back home there would be no reason why she would get to cuddle up to Remy for warmth. There was already plenty of it there from the over-worked furnace. Back home there wouldn't be a good enough excuse that Rogue could find to be with Remy. Sure she could always just go find him and spend time with him. But then she might end up saying things that she wasn't ready to say.

And she most definitely was not ready to say any of those things. How_could_ she say them? How could she say, 'I love you, Remy', when she wasn't entirely positive that Remy loved her back? She wasn't positive. But as she thought this, something Remy had said earlier in the night came back to her.

'_I'm__your__Remy.__Don't__you__know?'_

But…no. If he had meant 'I love you' then he would have said that…Right? Right? RIGHT?

But the point was…she couldn't tell him how she felt because she didn't want the rejection. If there was rejection. Obviously Remy was infatuated with her, but that didn't mean that he loved her. And Rogue was not going to get involved just a little bit when she wanted to get involved all the way. Well…until she gained control of her powers, that is. Then she would _make_ Remy love her.

"We better go before this guy craps a brick," Remy muttered out of the corner of his mouth as he opened the door and slid out. He reached back in and flipped the switch on a little radio that was sitting on the dashboard. Rogue realized belatedly that that was where Blue Christmas had been playing from. It must have been the little radio that Kitty had put in the box for them.

"C'mon," Remy said. He grabbed her gloved hand before she could say anything and pulled her out of the car. "Is there anything in there that you'll need tonight?"

"My coat-"

"It's still wet, isn't it?" Remy asked before reaching back in the car and coming back out with the blanket. "Here," after quickly spreading the blanket out, he wrapped it around her shivering form tightly and closed the car door behind them.

Maybe she _was_ still sleeping after all. Or else she was just that sleepy. Or maybe Rogue relished the feel of Remy's protective arm currently tucked around her too much to object. Whatever the reason, she allowed herself to be herded to the big truck and climbed into the warm cab.

Remy jumped in behind her and pulled her to him again as he kept an eye on the scruffy man behind the drivers seat.

"Where we going?" The strange man asked in a deep, rumbling voice.

Rogue stared at him. His beard was white and long, just barely touching his chest. His hair was white too, and the part of his face that wasn't covered in hair had a rosy look to it. Surely, it was impossible. This guy looked so much like…but no, this couldn't be-

"1407 Graymalkin Lane," Remy said to the man, cutting into Rogue's thoughts. "It's over past-"

"I know where it is," the man said gruffly. "The big mansion, right?"

"Yes." Remy said. "You've seen it?"

The man let out some kind of grunt that must have been an acknowledgement.

"The name's Remy, this is Rogue," Remy gestured to Rogue with the arm that wasn't around her.

The man grunted again but didn't take his eyes off of the road. "Name's Nick."

Rogue's eyes widened.

"Huh…" Remy studied Nick's profile. "You don't look like a Nick."

The old man just continued to glare out of the windshield. "Yeah?" He cast a quick glance over at Remy. "You don't look like a Rogue."

"No, I'm Remy, my girl here is Rogue," Remy corrected.

"Yes, that's what you said before." Nick said with no animation whatsoever. "I'm just saying you don't look like a Rogue."

Rogue just stared at the man in confusion but Remy was nodding as though he understood.

"So Nick," Remy said after a few moments silence, "has anyone ever told you that you look exactly like-"

"Yes, all the time." Nick grunted. "I get strange kids coming up and giving me letters. That's why I always keep some candy over there in the dash," he indicated the dash in front of them. "I like to give em' something."

"Ooo! Candy?" Remy said excitedly causing Nick to send him a strange look.

"It's for the kids, don't touch it."

Remy pouted and looked like he was about to complain when Rogue, desperate to shut him up, elbowed him in gut.

"OH!" Remy burst, and bent over in pain.

Rogue was a little shocked that she had hit so hard and gaped at him. "Remy, are you ok?"

Nick looked like he was trying not to laugh. "You can have some candy." He told Rogue in a lighter tone than he had used on Remy.

Rogue cast him a confused look before patting Remy on the back. "I'm sorry Rems; I didn't mean to hit you that hard. Are you ok? Say something please."

Sighing, he sat up and shrugged. "Oh I'm fine. I was just trying to get some candy."

"What!" Rogue glared at him for a moment before punching him in the arm. "You jerk! I was scared I'd really hurt you!"

Remy winced but didn't move to rub his arm. "You were afraid for moi?" He grinned, "Oh Rogue, I knew you loved me."

Her face flamed red. She swallowed hard and avoided his gaze nervously. He gave her a quizzical look and didn't stop when she refused to look at him. But she couldn't look at him. Not after he had said that. He was just joking, surely. He didn't really know that she loved him and then teased her about it. No, he didn't. But he didn't know how deadly accurate he had come to naming her feelings, either.

Good thing he didn't notice the affect his words had on her. Yes, GOOD THING.

"Alright, we're here." Nick announced.

Rogue whipped around and stared out of the window. "What? That was fast."

Nick shrugged. "You weren't that far away."

So…they weren't as far away as they had thought they were? ALL THAT TIME they could have just WALKED HOME? Understandably, this made Rogue want to physically injure her team mates more than she had already wanted to.

Remy jumped down from the truck and then turned to help her down.

"Thanks," He told Nick who sent him a little nod.

"No problem," he grumbled, "You two have a Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," Rogue replied and watched the truck rumble back off down the road again.

"Well, we're home," Remy tucked an arm around her shoulders. "Whatcha' wanna do now?"

Rogue shrugged as they both stood at the end of the long driveway and stared up at the big house. There were several things she would like to do. Murder, decapitate, shoot, catch someone on fire, blow the house up, strangle something, set a python on someone, throw a toaster at someone's head, the ever present desire to kiss Remy senseless, and just to simply go to sleep.

Now she just had to figure out which one she wanted to do first.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Merry Christmas everyone! Thanks for reading and reviewing! Now be a good cheer and go hug someone you love. I just hugged my dog. She loves me.**

…

Date: December 23

Time: 12:14 am

Location: On the drive leading up to the Xavier institute

Remy glanced worriedly over at Rogue. She stood shivering under the blanket still wrapped around her, glaring up at the dark house. Obviously, everyone had gone to bed. Everyone had gone to their nice, warm beds while he and Rogue we stuck in the freezing car. How nice of them.

But he still wasn't all that mad about it. The only reason that he was a little ticked over it was because Rogue had suffered. And no one was going to hurt his chérie and get away with it.

But then again…Rogue looked like she wanted to exact revenge herself. Remy would have never told her this, but Rogue was looking kind of freaky at the moment. Her head just stuck out of the blanket, her face angry, the silence pressed in around them as the snow drifted down past them.

Remy was starting to get creeped out. He was about to say something along the lines of 'lets go to bed together' when Rogue finally spoke.

She still looked angry, and her voice showed it. She didn't draw her angry eyes away from the mansion as she spoke in a low, menacing tone.

"Remy…let's go make some _brownies_." Remy lifted an eyebrow as she grinned almost…_manically_ before heading for the front door.

"Brownies?" He asked quizzically as he followed her up the drive. "I like brownies. Can we put some chocolate icing on them? And some chocolate chips? And some marshmallows? And how about some vanilla ice cream?" He wiggled his eyebrows. "How about we put some Rogue on them? I could lick the ice cream out of your bellybutton."

She flushed. "I don't think you will want to eat these brownies."

"Well, no, I wouldn't if I didn't get to eat them off you." He muttered.

"These brownies will have a special ingredient, Remy," she continued as if he hadn't said anything at all.

He curiously lifted an eyebrow. "Wait…are you saying…are you telling me that you're making 'special brownies'?"

There was that maniacal grin again. They stopped in front of the double doors of the mansion and Rogue pulled her keys out of her pocket.

"Oh they'll be special, alright," she said as she unlocked the doors. "But I don't think that you'll appreciate them. They're not for you anyway."

They stepped into the dimly lit foyer and were immediately warmed by the heat from the furnace. The house was quiet and dark, save for the brightly lit Christmas tree over in the corner. Rogue slipped out of under the blanket and threw it aside before turning back to Remy.

"You got me home, Remy." She smiled warmly at him.

"Actually, Nick got us home." He pointed out.

"_You_ got me home," to Remy's surprise, Rogue slipped her arms around him and pressed her face into his chest. "Thank you, Remy. I…" she suddenly faltered, confusing him, "uh…I owe you one." She finished awkwardly.

For whatever reason, this sparked a memory in his mind. The ride home…teasing Rogue, saying something about…_Rogue,__I__knew__you__loved__me_. But how strange was it that this memory came back to him when Rogue has simply said 'I'. Sure, he would like for 'love you' to be the next words to follow that, but 'owe you one' was pretty darn good.

There were plenty of things that she could owe him now.

Fifty bucks, a back massage, that thing he was talking about a minute ago with the brownies…Or perhaps a date.

They could go to see some WWE wrestling, or go to the next monster truck show. Or, if she wanted something a bit classier, they could go see the Trans Siberian Orchestra. OR, if she wanted something really extreme they could sky diving. OR if she just wanted to rent a hotel and party like it was nineteen ninety nine, he would go for that.

Whatever she wanted to do, he was game.

Really though, she should never have said those words to him. Had the cold weather gone to her head? Maybe they had stayed in that car too long.

"Ugh," Rogue groaned suddenly, "I shouldn't have said that, should I?"

Remy just grinned.

…

Date: December 23

Time: 12:26 am

Location: The large kitchen of the Xavier mansion

"Rogue, what are you doing?"

Kitty entered the kitchen to find Rogue standing behind the counter and mixing something in a bowl, and Remy leaning against the wall and watching her contentedly. She rubbed her eyes sleepily, thinking surely that she must still be sleeping.

Why was Rogue up in the middle of the night and mixing…was that brownies? Or cake? Why was Remy up watching her? Why did Remy just throw his coat over something on the counter? Why were they loudly blasting Christmas music on that stereo with no respect for anyone upstairs sleeping?

And most importantly, WHY WERE REMY AND ROGUE HERE? HOW where Remy and Rogue here? WHEN did Remy and Rogue get here?

These were all good questions. But before she could stop staring at them in confusion and ask any of them, Logan, Charles, Hank, Jean, Scott, Kurt, and all the rest of the crew entered the kitchen behind her to also find Remy and Rogue.

They all wore the same expression that Kitty was sporting. A dazed and confused look that Kitty was sure would be on all of their faces for the next week or so.

"Yeah, we're really here," Rogue said cheerfully.

Wait, cheerfully? Kitty gawked at her and then dragged her gaze to Remy. But Remy wasn't looking at her, or any of them for that matter, his gaze didn't waver from Rogue. But that wasn't unusual at all.

"Santa gave us a ride home," Rogue smiled brightly at them all. She looked like she was about to add to that odd statement when she noticed all of the looks she was receiving. "Oh, I guess you're all confused." She finished mixing and dumped the batter into a pan before sticking it into the oven. When she finished, she turned to them and grinned.

"I just want to say to all of you…"

Kitty cringed inside, waiting for the atomic explosion of Rogue's anger.

"Thank you!" Rogue burst suddenly, startling everyone (except for Remy) in the kitchen.

No one's expression changed, not in the least. If anything, they all looked a thousand times more confused than they had five seconds ago. Perhaps…maybe they had done some irreversible damage. Maybe sticking Rogue in a freezing car and making her mad beyond belief _wasn't_healthy after all. Maybe they had smoked something in the car. Maybe she had slipped on some ice and bumped her noggin. Whatever it was, obviously something had gone terribly _wrong_ in her head.

"What?" Logan asked finally after a LONG and confused silence.

"Thank you," Rogue said again before making her way over to Remy. Everyone's eyebrows shot up as she reached up to link her arms around her neck. "You made me see what I was missin' out on," Rogue said without taking her eyes off of Remy's grinning face. "Remy and I are made for each other," she turned to look at them, "and we're getting married!"

Scott almost wet himself he was so shocked. He ran out of the room, holding himself after this announcement was made. Logan just blinked very slowly and stared at them. Charles smiled before remembering what Rogue had said about Bobby's frilly panties, and then he just felt like he needed to take another shower. Kurt was tired and wanted to go back to bed, but he smelled brownies and figured he could be persuaded to stay up for that. Then what Rogue had just said sunk in and he gaped at her.

Everyone else had normal reactions, except for Kitty who shrieked in excitement before leaping forward and grabbing both Remy and Rogue around the waists with each arm.

This just made the whole night. Of COURSE her plan had worked, she knew that it would, that was why she had constructed the whole thing in the first place. Even when Rogue had been so mad about it and threatened her life, Kitty hadn't minded. But after Rogue's last phone call, they all felt kind of guilty and ended up shutting the TV off and heading to bed.

But this was a great end to the night. Everyone was happy, Rogue and Remy were together, Christmas this year was going to be the best ever, and it was all thanks to none other than Kitty Pryde.

…

Rogue was pissed. But she hid it. She hid it behind a sweet smile and a happy face because her evil plan was working accordingly. Amazing, she thought, that she had come up with this plan all on her own and in a two minute time frame.

Remy had readily agreed to it, for some reason he had looked quite satisfied that she was so pleased to be getting her revenge. Pretty much all the plan was, was this: Get everyone to eat the brownies. Because the brownies were _evil_ brownies. And once the _evil_ brownies were ingested, the evilness which lay within the fudgy chocolaty goodness would spread and cause havoc!

And to get everyone to eat the _evil_ brownies and not suspect the oncoming chaos, they had to act like a pair of airheads for the next hour. It had been Remy's suggestion to say that they were getting married. And that thought made Rogue all tingly inside so she didn't mind going along with it.

So for the next forty minutes, as they waited for the _evil_ brownies to cook, Rogue put up with talks of weddings. Everyone seemed to have an input on it. Even the guys, for some reason. Of course, the guy's suggestion was to just go to the court house and elope.

THAT conversation, she could have dealt with. The talk that she had trouble controlling herself through was the one where everyone started talking about how they had planned on stranding them in the car. Apparently, as Rogue had suspected, they had all been in on it. This just made her anticipate the _evil_brownies even more.

The only thing that kept her under control the whole time was the comfort of Remy's arm around her shoulders, and the feel of him pressed into her side. At some points, this was most distracting. But even Remy couldn't distract her from something that Bobby said.

"Yeah, and we even went so far as to hook up a camera in the car," he said sheepishly, "you didn't find it, did you? It was on the rearview mirror."

Rogue bit her tongue so hard that it bled. But she just kept telling herself one thing. _Evil_ brownies. _Evil_brownies. _Evil_ brownies. _Evil_brownies. _Evil_ brownies. They were _evil_and they were coming.

These creepy, voyeuristic, unthinking and inexpressibly EVIL friends of theirs were going to pay for their 'cute' little prank. Oh yes, they were going to PAY!

_Ding!_The timer on the oven went off and Rogue leaped for the oven to pull them out.

"I made some sweets to celebrate," she said sweetly as she pulled the brownies out, "Everyone has to eat one!"

Good thing everyone liked brownies. Rogue kept a cool face as she cut them out and put a piece for everyone (except for herself and Remy) on a little plate.

Twenty minutes later, after everyone had received and eaten their brownie, and then (to Rogue's delight) gone for seconds, Rogue stood and asked for silence. Everyone quieted down and stared up at her grinning face.

"So…you all liked those brownies, huh?" She looked around at them all. "They were good…WEREN'T THEY?"

Everyone stared.

"Um…Yes," Kitty said slowly.

"Well you should know," Rogue continued to grin, "that I used a special ingredient. The ingredient…of REVENGE!"

Everyone continued to stare at her; some of them were looking confused, the others just looked worried.

"What was that?" Charles asked, looking like he did NOT want to know the answer.

"HA!" Rogue ripped Remy's coat off of the counter and pulled a box out from under it. "It was laxatives! Merry Christmas you morons!"

"Hey!" Kitty said, looking offended, "I am not a…wait, what did you say?"

Everyone else was still staring, though now they looked horrified and…kind of mad.

"ROGUE!" Logan thundered. "Kid, you better be messing with me! I ate three of those!"

"Oh come on!" Scott complained, "Isn't my bladder crazy enough tonight? Speaking of which…" He turned and walked out of the room quickly, leaving his furious teammates behind.

"Oh gee," Rogue said happily, "you're all unhappy because I did something to you that you didn't want! How VERY interesting is that? It's almost like something like this happened earlier tonight…oh gosh, my memory is a little hazy, help me out, will you Kitty?"

But Kitty didn't look like she was in any mood to answer. Her chipper mood was now gone and replaced with a less desirable sour one. She glared at Rogue and at the quiet but smirking Remy behind her.

"OH FINE!" Kitty burst, "I'm sorry okay! I'm sorry that I just wanted to help you and Remy! You both love each other but you're also both too blind to see it! You love Remy and he loves you and if you both want to play the dumb card with each other, that's fine, but don't play it with me because I can see through it!" She huffed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some…business to attend to, and fast before I go bankrupt."

Rogue shook her head at the strange wording. It's ok if it goes over your head; it took her a moment to get it too.

On the inside she was panicking. Hopefully, Remy hadn't heard any of that. Hopefully he had just happened to go deaf at that moment. Because Remy couldn't know that she loved him, he couldn't because…because…wait, there WAS a reason that she was keeping it from him.

She just had to remember it now.

And hang on...Did Kitty say that Remy loved her? Yes, she had. But surely she was just acting like Kitty. Kitty said that Rogue loved Remy…and she had been right about _that_ one. How she knew it was beyond Rogue. She had been so very careful to keep her feelings concealed. But then she had said that Remy loved Rogue. Kitty was wrong about that one….right?

Rogue chanced a glance over her shoulder at Remy. Strange…he seemed to be wearing the same curious look that she could feel on her face. But why would Remy be curious? Oh, well the answer to that one was obvious. Kitty had said that Rogue loved him. He was probably looking at her and wondering if it was true.

Well, at least he didn't look scared or panicked like a trapped animal as Rogue had always envisiouned that he would when she told him the truth.

She mentally shook her head to rid herself of these thoughts. It wouldn't do for Remy to see the truth on her face. Because…of whatever reason that it was that she was keeping the truth from him for.

Quickly averting her gaze back to the others, she said cheekily, "So, there are eleven of you guys…and how many toilets in this place? Eight, right?"

No one but Remy found this bit of information amusing. Rogue was the most unpopular person in the room at the moment and also the happiest.

"Rogue," Logan said in a threatening voice before he suddenly stopped. "Oh hell," he grumbled before quickly exiting the room.

Five minutes later, everyone was fighting to get into the bathroom. The Professor, who ended up nearly running Bobby over with his wheelchair had locked the door and left Bobby outside howling. Everyone else had run upstairs, except for Scott who had just been thrown the ground by Hank when he had tried to fight for the other downstairs bathroom.

The only person who didn't seem to have a problem was Piotr, who was now sitting at the kitchen table and drinking eggnog.

"You can't get me," he told Rogue and Remy before grinning, "I have bowels of steel."

"Oh, I'll think of something," Rogue grumbled as she glowered at him.

Suddenly, Remy leaned in close to her and nudged her gently with his elbow.

"Hey, meet me in the dining room in five minutes, will you?"

"Why-" she started to ask but Remy was gone out the door.

Though she was a bit nervous about this, Rogue headed for the dining room anyway. But it was probably fine…Remy wouldn't do anything too crazy, right? It was almost one in the morning, he should be winding now from his usual crazy at some point soon…

Well, Rogue told herself, at least it wasn't like anyone could lock them in the dining room and force them to spend time together.

…

Remy's thoughts were going a mile a minute. Maybe he was wrong, maybe he was just picking up on things that he _wanted_ to be true, maybe he was too observant, and maybe…hopefully he was right.

Pieces of tonight were fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle. Something was becoming clearer and clearer…But what if he was wrong? Just to make sure that he wasn't, Remy went through his mind, searching his thoughts and memories and counting off the list of evidence.

Rogue liked him. Rogue (obviously) enjoyed being around him. Rogue suddenly out of the blue wanted to work night and day to learn to control her powers. Rogue wanted to date him when she gained control of said powers. Rogue had said in the car, _You__were__right,__you're__my__Remy_. Rogue had become too quiet when he had said _I__knew__you__loved__me_.

And then finally, Kitty had said it. Kitty had said the one thing that made him really think. Kitty said _you__love__Remy_.

Did she?

She did. Remy was positive now. Then why didn't she just say so? Didn't she know that he loved her? How COULDN'T she? Everyone knew. Obviously, Kitty knew. And if Kitty had been right about that, Remy was positive that she must have been right when she had said that Rogue loved him back.

So the solution was simple. Tell Rogue the truth.

It was going to be the most terrifying experience of his life, Remy was sure of it. What…what if he _was_ wrong?

No. He wasn't. He had to stop thinking thoughts like that. He had to be brave. And if he turned out to be wrong after all and Rogue didn't love him…No, he wouldn't think about it. He couldn't think about it. Something in his gut wrenched painfully when he thought of that possible outcome.

If she didn't love him…he would think of something. He always did. He would make it through.

But that was the problem. He wouldn't be able to make it through if that happened.

But he had to stop thinking about it. He had to. He just had to think of happy thoughts to get his tortured mind straight. Happy thoughts like…fist fights, corrupting the law, damaging state property, blowing things up, sex, brownies, brownies on Rogue, Rogue on brownies, the South, poker, cheating at poker, cheating at poker and winning a lot of money, money, Rogue, and cute little puppies.

What? Remy liked puppies. Of course, who _doesn't_ like puppies? You have to be some kind of sick freak not to like puppies.

Great, now his mind was on puppies instead of Rogue. He went into his room and got the Christmas present that he had bought for her as his thoughts continued to keep him preoccupied.

Beagle puppies were the best. But then, little Chihuahua puppies were only about a pound when they were first born, and how could you beat one pound puppies?

You couldn't.

Two minutes later, Remy slipped into the dining room and closed the door behind him. Rogue was already there and waiting for him, staring quietly out at the falling snow.

Ok, he could it. He was going to do it. He could. First he just had to make his feet move and his tongue to grow back to its normal size. Right now it felt oddly swollen and dry. But it was going to be alright, that's what he had to keep telling himself. All he had to do was think of puppies; millions and millions of little puppies.

"Rogue," he said and when she turned, Remy was a bit surprised to find that she also looked nervous.

"Remy," she smiled as he came closer. "I um…I want to talk to you about something."

He lifted an eyebrow curiously at this. What did Rogue want to talk to him about? Oh well, whatever it was, it could wait until he was finished. Because he knew that what he wanted to talk about was pretty important at the moment, probably more important than whatever it was that Rogue needed to talk about.

"Ok," he nodded, "just let me go first, please?"

She took a step closer, until they were only a few feet apart. "But it's kind of important."

"Alright," he said impatiently, "you can tell me after I say something first."

"But-" she started to protest before he thrust the messily wrapped present towards her.

"Open your present," he said pleasantly.

Sighing, Rogue took the present from his hands and started to unwrap as Remy moved closer. She finished unwrapping and stared down at it as he spoke.

"I wanted to give you the real thing." He said quietly, "But…I can't, so I thought I'd improvise."

Rogue grinned down at the bag in her hands. "You got me Hershey kisses? Remy, that's…" she stopped suddenly as she lifted her gaze back up to his. "I was going to wait, but…I'll give you your present now too."

Tossing the bag of kisses down on the table, Rogue leaned forward suddenly, surprising Remy as her arms found their way around his neck and their bodies were suddenly pressed tightly together.

"Rogue-"

"Remy," she said shakily, "be _very_ still."

She really expected him to move? Remy had only a split second to wonder what she was doing before her mouth was on his. It was just a light, sweet touch but it was enough to shock him stupid. Any second now, he would be on his back, knocked out cold. But at least he would have fun getting there.

Any second it would happen. He might as well savor the moment before it happened. He made the kiss harder, deeper, and more passionate.

Rogue made a tiny sound in her throat that sent a tingle down his spine. A sound that made him want to pull her closer, kiss her all over, and cause her to make more of those sounds. But any second now he would be passed out. Any second now it would end.

Strange that it hadn't happened yet.

Very, _very_ strange indeed.

To his chagrin, Rogue pulled away suddenly and looked up at him with wide eyes and flushed cheeks.

"I love you, Remy," she said abruptly.

This was all turning out very strangely. When Remy first came into the dining room, he was coming in to bring a present to his poisoned skin girlfriend and tell her that he loved her. Now he had given her his cheap present that had only cost him three dollars and forty cents, she seemed to REALLY like it, her poison skin seemed to be on the fritz, and now she was telling him that she loved him.

This was not how Remy had pictured things happening. Not that he was complaining.

"You…heard me, right?" Rogue asked nervously after a long, silent moment.

Maybe he was dreaming. It definitely wouldn't be the first time that he had dreamed about this. Maybe they were still trapped in the car. Maybe Rogue was trying to wake him up right now to tell him that Santa Clause was coming to take them home. Maybe…Maybe Rogue loved him as he had had suspicions about.

Maybe he should say something back to her before she got the wrong idea.

"I…love you," he said in a dazed voice.

Rogue nodded slowly. "Yes, that's what I said. I…I'm sorry I thought…I mean, I wasn't going to say anything when I came in here but I just started thinking about it…Kitty said…Kitty said that you loved me too and I believed her. I guess…she was wrong?"

"No," Remy said slowly. "I said I love _you_, Rogue." Rogue's eyes widened and now it was her turn to look surprised, which slowly turned to a look of pleasure.

"You love me too?" She asked in a voice full of hope.

"Baby, I can't remember a time when I _didn't_." He grinned slowly, though he was still unsure of what was happening. It was too good to be true. It had to be…"I've been so in love with you for so long…I can't even remember what I thought about before there was you." He studied her features carefully. He was hoping for a good reaction…If there ever was a time to tell her how he felt, it was right now. And he had to dive all the way in to let her know exactly what to expect out of him.

Rogue blinked a few times and then smiled. OK, Remy thought, good so far…

"Are you serious?" She asked, sounding excited, "That's what I was going to say!"

It was definitely good.

"Give me another week," Rogue said suddenly, "just another week and I think I can finally gain full control of my powers. That kiss I gave you just now, that's about as far as I can go and still be sure of my control."

"Wait," Remy said, "you can control your powers?"

Grinning, she tilted her head backwards to see him better. "I'll try it again if you say it one more time."

"I love you?" He questioned and she nodded. "Then I love you, chérie."

"I love you too," she whispered before bringing his head back down to hers and kissing him for one long, tender moment.

"Merry Christmas, Remy," she said after they finally broke apart again.

Remy grinned. "Merry Christmas, Rogue."


End file.
